Stepping Up (18 page)

“Roger,” I say. “Jonesy, Sherri, let’s go.  Leave any
unnecessary baggage here.” We approach the closer of the two ships, the
fifty-tonner.  We see no lights.  “Sherri, anything giving off heat?”

The wind hasn’t deposited any debris alongside the ship. That
tells me it hasn’t been here too long. “Nothing on the infra-red.  There are no
life signs on the bio-scanner, but these things can be fooled by atmospheric
conditions.  Or anything trying to hide.” It is a pretty calm day. About 70
degrees F. Anything inside may not have shown on the scans anyway.

Sherri and I take up over-watch positions while Jonesy opens
the cargo door to the cutter. It is empty and in new condition inside.  “Team
One, Team Two.  We’re moving through the cutter, bow to stern.”

“Team Two, Team One. Roger.” The cutter is empty. It looks
like it has never been used. The computer and controls are like new, and I
don’t see any stains or scuff marks anywhere.  It’s like the ship came from the
factory and was parked here and hasn’t been touched since.

Jones notes: “This bucket looks like it just came out of the
factory.”  I move to the bridge.  I see what looks like a power button.  When I
push it the control panel comes alive.  It’s very similar to our own.  After
some trial and error, I download the navigational charts to a portable memory
unit.  “Team One, Team Two.  I have the nav data in my PMU.”

“Roger,” Aria says. “Move to the scout ship. After that,
move out for perimeter sweep.”

“Roger. We’re moving.”  We make a similar, deliberately
cautious entry.  The starship is very similar to a
Seeker
Class mining
ship.  It is used primarily for mining asteroids or small planetoids. The
instrument panel has a few lights blinking.  We find one juvenile female
humanoid in what looks like a TMOD sarcophagus in the bay.  The bay was
initially built to contain ore. The berth is not cabled to a nearby power
outlet.  I would have expected it to be attached to a power bus, but there is a
cable running from the berth aft.  I follow it, and it runs directly to the power
plant. 
That’s odd.
It is the only thing that appears to be powered in
the vessel.  Looking through the view ports of the sarcophagus, the girl is
roughly three and a half feet tall.  She appears to be approximately forty
pounds, and around six years old.  She’s a little on the gaunt side, but shows
no obvious signs of distress.  Oddly, the sarcophagus is locked.  I don’t mean
“locked down.” This puppy has three padlocks keeping it closed.  The question
in my mind is:
Was it to keep her in or something else out? I’m betting on
the former.  But how much of a threat can a little girl be?

I repeat the same procedure for the navigational data that I
did on the cutter.  I power down the pilot console when I’m finished with it. 
Otherwise, the ship, like the cutter, is in good condition but empty. I report
our findings to Aria.  She surprises me:  “We will finish the perimeter sweep.
Wake the child and interrogate her. We need information, and I am beginning to
think more than this starport is deserted.”

She is the boss. “As you wish. I presume you will check the
control facility for their logs and such?”

“Yes, mother, I will.”  Gods I hate sarcastic androids!!

“Leemealone!  I’m an engineer, we sweat the details.” I’m
smiling. I hope she hears it in my voice.

“Touché, Sonia.” Good, she heard the smile.

Foraging in the tool locker, Jones finds a pair of bolt
cutters while Aria is needling me.  I take them from him. “Stand over there,
out of her line of sight.  Typically, coming out of cryo-sleep leaves one disoriented. 
But if she’s some sort of mutant wild cat and explodes out of there, I want you
to put two in her head.”

He nods, slinging his rifle and drawing his pistol.  He’s a
little too willing to kill a child for my tastes, but that’s a discussion for a
different time.  I cut the locks and use the cutters to knock the latches open.
I activate the “open” switches on the sarcophagus.  The unit starts venting,
not really unexpected.  It looks very similar to the ones we have on
Night
Searcher
and responds similarly when I start the awakening process.  I hand
Sherri the bolt cutters.  I have my canteen in my left hand. With my right, I
open the lid to the tube.

Now is when it gets weird.  The girl opens her eyes. She
shouldn’t be doing that yet.  They are solid white. I don’t mean albino white,
I mean featureless, like ping pong balls.  No iris, no pupil, nothing.  Pure
white.  She stirs a bit and orients her head to face me. “Hello, Sonia. My name
is Gwendolyn. May I have some of your water, please?”

She shouldn’t be doing that!
“Yes, Gwendolyn, I
suppose so, here.” I hold the canteen towards her.  She doesn’t fumble looking
for it, but stretches out her hand and takes it from me. “How did you come to
be here?”

“I do not know. The last place I remember was Taramus IV in
what you call the Fazh’eeyan system. My mother and father were killed. I was
captured and told I was a slave. I suppose you are my new mistress.  If you
wish, you may call me ‘Gwen.’  Is that acceptable to you, or have you another
preference?”

“Damn right she’s your mistress,” Jones mutters.  “I ain’t
gettin’ stuck with watching any frickin’ children.”

“Can it, Jonesy.” I say with a snarl.  I look back to Gwen.
“That will be decided later.  So you can read minds.  Can you do other things
with your mind?  Do you know who captured you? Can you stand? Walk?  Are you
hungry?” I fish a piece of pogey bait from a cargo pocket—Gorb’s chocolate. 
Well,
what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.

“Slow down, Boss,” Sherri says. “Give her a chance to answer
you.”

“No, thank you,” she replies, “I don’t eat candy. I would
like some fruit or  vegetables if you have any. I can stand and walk, and I
don’t make things happen with my mind. They happen all by themselves.” 
A
parent’s dream, a child asking for vegetables
.  I help her out of the
sarcophagus.  Good to her word, she doesn’t wobble even a little. 

I brief Aria, telling her all Gwen’s told me and add:  “She
has some form of mental power also.  She knew my name before I said it.  Have
you found anything helpful?”

“Roger. We will reconvene at our cutter. We are going to do
an aerial recon. We do not see anything or anyone. I fear something terrible
happened here.”

“Roger, we’ll make our way to our cutter.”

I turn back to Gwen. “I’m sorry.  We don’t have any fresh food
at all.  I want you to come with us, if for no other reason than to keep you
safe.  I don’t know what happened here yet, but unless you are far more than
meets the eye, you don’t need to be wandering around here by yourself. 
However, I have to warn you:  If you do anything to make us think you are
trying to harm us, we will kill you.  We’ll hate it, but we’ll do it.  Do you
understand and believe me?”

“I understand and believe you. The logic is irrefutable.”

The four of us go to the cutter.  Before we leave, I use my
perCom to take a few pictures of the berth for study later. Once aboard the
cutter, we start the preflight checks and procedures.  I put Gwen in a
passenger seat and fasten the seat belt.  “Stay here, please.”

Aria climbs in and takes a quick bio-scan of Gwen. “She is
free of chemical and radiological impurities. And you have her strapped in.
Good.” Then she addresses Gwen, “Hello little one, I am Miss Aria. Please tell
me your story.  In your native language, if you can.”

Gwen’s mouth works and sounds come out.  It is nothing like
any language I’ve ever heard.  She speaks for several minutes then stops.

“I see. Well, please believe me when I say that we are your
friends. And Sonia here is your new Mommy. Is that okay?”

Gwen beams. “Great!!” I suppose she’s happy I’m ‘mommy’ not
‘mistress.’  Wait, ‘Mommy?’  ME?

I tap Aria on the shoulder, “I suppose ‘favorite aunt’ would
have been too much to ask? What do I know about children?  The only upside here
is I get to avoid that whole ‘Honey, I think I’m pregnant’ drama.”

“Relax.  Gorb will love her. So will Dr. Took.” 
Does
everybody know my private life?
“And what woman, before she has one, really
knows anything about children?”  The cutter climbs to a hundred feet, and
starts flying very slowly over the starport area, taking scans and looking for
people or the materials needed for the array.

Shawna pilots. Aria stares at the scanner readouts. “I think
this area was nuked. Radiation levels are steadily climbing and will be off the
scale soon.  We will all need decontamination.  Miss Watson!  Dig the antiRad
tablets out of the medical pack, please and thank you.”

I go to the flight deck and look over Aria’s shoulder.
“Probably neutron weapons, given the lack of structural damage. But even so,
where are the bodies? D’you think we got zapped enough to worry about?”

Aria responds, “The readings at our landing site were low,
or I would have directed we don protective gear.  So standard decon should be
sufficient.    What really troubles me is we did not notice this from
Night
Searcher
. Did you see anything we can use for a sensor array?”

“That’s the good news.  We can scavenge some pieces from
both ships for the electronics. We just need something for the antenna.  Oh,
here’s the PMU with the navigational data I downloaded.”

Sherri taps me on the shoulder and hands me the two
anti-radiation chewable tablets.

“Thank you.” Aria says it to me as I say it to Sherri.

Fifteen minutes pass. Aria points at something through the
windshield and says, “There! Forty-five degrees starboard, range 1500 meters;
that is an old radar dish, just as I was hoping for. Very well, Sonia, you and
your team go back and get whatever we can use from the miner. Shawna, you are
now under Sonia’s operational control.  I will fly the cutter we found up to
Night
Searcher
and get equipment and radiation hypos, as well as a few more hands
to help us.”

Speak of the devil
, “Mother Hen, this is
Night
Searcher
, there are sixteen vessels entering planetary space. I say again,
one six vessels entering planetary space. 
Night Searcher
Actual says
for you to get your teams to a cave or other hiding place. We are taking the
battle to the far side of the local moon.”

That changes things.  “Disregard my last orders. Shawna:
Find the nearest cave or tunnel and put us there.”

Shawna peers into the navigational sensor system.  “Tally
ho.  Twenty-one hundred miles northeast. There is a huge canyon complex.  The
central valley has a large cave opening in its side.”

“Unless you tell me not to,” I tell Aria “I’m going to start
shutting down anything on this tub that will give away our position.  External
lights, emitters, anything we don’t need.” I’m not waiting for an answer. I
start shutting things down.  “Ideally, something to mask the thermal signature
of the engines would be good too.  I doubt we’ll fit in Shawna’s cave—shut it,
Jonesy—any chance we can get underwater?”

“Good thinking, Sonia,” Aria says, “It is a nice idea, but I
do not think we have the time to get to the ocean, not to mention deep enough
to be unnoticed.”

Shawna chimes into the discussion, “This cutter is
cylindrical with a radius of ten meters. The cave opening is twenty-five by
hundred twelve. We’ll fit. And we don’t want to be underwater in this can. We
may be on our own here for weeks.” 

Aria assents.  I yield to the subject matter experts.

The cutter enters the canyon and screams down towards—and
into—the cave. After the opening, the cave is narrow for about three hundred
yards and then opens up into a large cavern.  The cavern has numerous tunnels
that extend farther than our scanners will reach.  Shawna threads the needle at
two hundred miles per hour.  I am impressed and say so. 
It would have been
nice had we the opportunity to back into the cave, but you can’t have
everything
.  Fortunately, she has enough room to turn the ship so we won’t
have to back out.

“Pretty slick, chick.” I tell Shawna.

“On the money, honey,” she replies. “This isn’t my first
rodeo.  You don’t get to be a cutter pilot on
Night Searcher
without
having demonstrated skill.”
I’m going to say “modesty” is not her strong
suit.
At Aria’s direction, Shawna flies us further in and sets us down.

“We need to conserve power,” Aria says. “Everyone get into
an APE suit. If an orbital bombardment starts, we do not want to find out the
hard way they are using chemical or biological weapons.” Aria commands. 

APE suit.  I never thought about an APE suit for a child. 
Fortunately, we’ve got some spares. All of the ship’s boats have twenty APE
suits, two med kits, four survival packs, one accelerator rifle, a mechanic kit
with welder, and a high-energy weapon.  This one has a Plasma Gun.  I find a
small APE suit. A small is still very large on Gwen, but with some carefully
applied cargo straps, I make it work.  It’s not comfortable, and I feel bad
about that, but it’s unavoidable.  She doesn’t complain, so I ask, “Gwen, can
you use your mind and tell us anything about what happened on the planet or the
ships coming into the system?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t make it happen.  What ships?”  An
answer as simple as it is terrifying.

Aria is looking at the scanners.

I’m looking out the windows. “Y’know, it occurs to me that
if I lived here and were looking for a place to hide from a nuclear holocaust,
this cave would do nicely.  You may want to consider taking a patrol in further
to see what else may be here.”
Was that my “out loud” voice?

“Thank you for volunteering, Sonia,” Aria says. “Take your
team and do a five mile recon.” 
Me and my big mouth.